Study on AAA Platforms For Scientific Resources in Europe

In December 2011, a consortium of four partners and a number of external experts was awarded a contract by the European Commission to carry out a study into AAA (authentication, authorisation and accounting) platforms and services for scientific resources. The study, led by TERENA, was concluded in September 2012.

Aim of the AAA Study

The goal of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of delivering an integrated Authentication and Authorisation (and possibly accounting) Infrastructure (AAI) to help the emergence of a robust platform (Scientific Data Infrastructure(SDI)) for access to and preservation of scientific information.

The targeted actors in the study were the research and education communities, information service providers (data centres, libraries) and e-Infrastructure providers.

The study was organised in two parts (see picture on the righhand side):

Collectionuse-cases to derive the AAI requirements;

Evaluation of existing AAI as well as their gap analisys to identify their strengths and their challenges. The legal aspects of the different AAIs was also assessed.

The output of the study consists of a set of recommendations for the delivery of an integrated AAI to be used for SDI.

The recommendations highlight the following priorities:

The general assumption confirmed by this study is that an AAI for SDI should be built on standard technologies, using mechanisms to translate between various authentication and authorisation technologies, and that federated access plays an important role;

To fully benefit from federated access, more funding is needed to improve the reach of national identity federations in research an education;

Further research is needed to enhance authorisation and accounting mechanisms;

A common policy and trust framework for identity management is needed, as well as clarity on data protection laws – these should be coordinated at European level;

Relevant organisations such as eIRG, REFEDS (Research and Education Federations), IGTF, the EC and consortia of libraries and data centres should all work towards these goals.